An Accra High Court presided over by Justice William Bempong has vacated an earlier order striking out Senyo Hosi’s defamation suit filed against Kennedy Agyapong in 2017.
On July 12, 2021, lawyers for Senyo Hosi, CEO of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, were not in court when lawyers for the Assin Central MP asked the court to strike out the case.
Mr. Hosi’s lawyers filed an affidavit and a writ requesting the re-listing of the case, pointing out that Mr. Agyapong’s lawyers have failed to attend several hearings and that the court rather took the decision to strike out the case on the one day that Mr. Agyapong’s lawyers showed up in court.
But the court today, Thursday, July 29, 2021, said lawyers for the MP failed to bring certain important facts to its attention on July 12 leading to him wrongly striking out the case.
It, therefore, rejected all arguments by the MP’s lawyer, Raphael Agyapong, against relisting the case.
Justice Bempong stressed that the striking out was in error also because Mr. Hosi and his lawyers were never informed the case had been rescheduled for that day after they had missed an earlier adjourned date.
The lawyer for Senyo Hosi argued that the development was “bizarre” because the MP and his lawyers had failed to comply with orders to file witness statements in 2019, and only did so in March this year.
Samson Lardy Anyenni said the court was ready to proceed with case management for the trial to start in 2020, but he magnanimously indulged the MP and his lawyers, only for them to show up the last time and act in bad faith.
He added that the conduct of Mr. Agyapong’s lawyers was in bad taste because his firm had on six different occasions served hearing notices on them when they failed to attend court and didn’t know the next adjourned date.
The case has been adjourned to Wednesday, October 20, 2021, at 9:00 am for case management to pave the way for the trial to start.
Mr. Hosi filed the defamation case against Kennedy Agyapong after he accused the CBOD CEO of bribery. Mr. Agyapong claimed that Mr. Hosi had paid a $1 million bribe to a former CEO of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST), Alfred Obeng, to influence the reversal of a contaminated fuel sale by BOST to two companies.
BOST’s sale of five million litres of off-spec fuel generated media discussions, forcing the then Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, to set up a committee to investigate the circumstances under which the fuel was contaminated and later sold.
In his suit filed in July 2017, Mr. Hosi was demanding damages to the tune of GHS5,000,000 against Kennedy Agyapong and GHS3,000,000 against Kencity Media, a media company owned by Mr. Agyapong.
